Fiona Tomas
A SPANISH director is hoping to influence thousands of people with the launch of a moving and innovative documentary about Spain’s culture of animal genocide.
Santa Fiesta is a documentary produced by Miguel Angel Rolland which aims to uncover and challenge the barbaric attitudes that religious and political authorities uphold towards animal cruelty across the peninsular.
It is estimated that 60,000 animals die every year at popular religious and traditional festivals throughout Spain and Rolland mentions on his website that bullfighting is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’.
The film promises to offer a genuine insight into the torturing and sacrificing of animals as a way of religious celebration.
Filmed secretly over a year, Santa Fiesta is particularly unique in that it lacks interviews, narration or musical score. By solely focusing upon image and noise, Rolland hopes that the authentic sounds of what he and his production team filmed will horrifically expose how such celebrations are wholly unjustified.
In spite of being produced without financial help from any Spanish broadcaster, online donations from more than 30 countries worldwide have already amassed the €16,000 target that Rolland initially set for the film on his crowd funding website.
These include international US-based charity Animals Guardian, La Tortura No Es Cultura in Spain and various international bull-fighting summits.
Speaking exclusively to the Olive Press, Miguel-Angel described this financial support as ‘extraordinary’ but admitted that there was ‘still a lot of work’ to be done.
He continued: “I always wanted to make a film where I could reveal to the rest of the world how this is not picturesque at all, how this is a huge moral and humanitarian problem which affects all of us.”
Despite having worked in the film industry for over 20 years, Rolland has singled out his latest film as ‘the most important work’ of his career because of the change he hopes it will contribute to society.
It is hoped that the film will be launched for theatrical release later this year.
To sponsor Santa Fiesta, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/santa-fiesta#/story
It’s culture.
To Fred: Culture cannot excuse everything. Humans have used “Culture” to excuse torturing people and animals for centuries. Humanity is more than just “culture”. If everyone were like you, Chinese women would still have their feet bound, people would stll be tortured and beheaded for their crimes, handicapped children would still be killed at birth, etc. The list of atrocities committed in the name of culture is a long and ugly one. A civilized society cannot accept horrors, torture and death in the name of “Culture”. It makes no sense and has no room in our enlightened age. People can change and should change when their actions bring so much suffering and pain… ANY society needs to evolve and question its culture and behaviours. Horrors were committed in the past when people were uneducated and their view of the world was a very narrow one. We have evolved and we have no excuse to continue committing barbaric acts, other than pure sadism…
ISIS are a good example of the unenlightened, barbaric, uncivilised world you refer to in the name of “culture”.
I certainly wish him well but ask that the “Olive Press” let us know when the film will be released & where it’ll be possible to view it.
I have today written my comments on the other article, reference the horrendous bullfight practice that still goes on in this country, why I will never ever understand.
Now we have coming around again another absolutely disgusting barbaric Spanish practice. Its impossible to understand the mentality of these people. Animal cruelty in Spain is it appears as common as going for a drink. Shame on Spain you should hang your heads, perhaps when you really do claw your way into the twenty first century you will see what the rest of the civilized world sees, and hang your heads in shame. I really do hope so.